Examination of Witnesses (Questions 991
- 999)
WEDNESDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2007
Mr Michael Grade CBE, Mr John Cresswell and Mr Michael
Jermey
Q991 Chairman:
Good morning. Michael Grade, welcome. Welcome to your colleagues.
You know what we are doing. What we would like to do today is
to concentrate rather on ownership, the effect that media ownership
can have, but perhaps before we get on to that, can we ask some
general questions about ITV and the news generally because what
we are obviously concentrating on is the news, provision of news,
whether that is in any way under threat in this country—we
did not come back particularly optimistic after our trip to the
United States—and whether there are similar forces at work
here. Can I ask first, what priority do you place on having a
good news service on ITV?
Mr Grade: The highest priority. It is one of
the few milestone points in your schedule every day of every week
of every month of every year. Having a quality, distinctive, impartial
news service is one of the things that helps you to distinguish
your network from other networks. So it is a very high priority
for us. It also gives your audience a clear signal that your network
is relevant to their daily lives in a way that I think is crucial.
Q992 Chairman:
You are required in any event by regulation to have a news service
but what you are saying is, basically, even if there were not
that regulation, you would want to provide it?
Mr Grade: I definitely would, yes.
Q993 Chairman:
You contract with a news provider. It could be ITN but not necessarily
ITN.
Mr Grade: Not necessarily, no.
Q994 Chairman:
At one stage I think you went out to contract with other providers.
Mr Grade: I might ask John to answer that because
I was not around at the time. John may well have been part of
that.
Mr Cresswell: That is right, Chairman. The last
time, before the current contract ran, ITV went out to tender
for anyone who would be a qualified nominated news provider to
provide the service, and ITN won that tender.
Q995 Chairman:
I think we might come back to that point. ITV decide when the
news is shown, at what point it is shown.
Mr Grade: Within certain parameters of definitions
of peak time and so on under the terms of the licence with Ofcom.
Q996 Chairman:
Then we come to the saga of News at Ten. It became News at Ten-thirty
and now you are proposing that it should go back to News at Ten
again.
Mr Grade: We are indeed, Chairman. We are going
to go four nights a week at 10 o'clock on ITV. We will go head
to head with BBC1 and the audience will make their choice.
Q997 Chairman:
Why are you doing that? It seemed an eccentric move to actually
move off 10 o'clock but, having moved off, it seems pretty eccentric
to go back to it.
Mr Grade: It makes good business sense for us.
We think if you are going to do news in the second half of peak
time, you should do it at a time which is the most relevant—parliamentary
votes at 10 o'clock, quite often important moments in the political
life of the nation—and what is the point of running news
half an hour, immediately after BBC1 has done a very extensive
and highly professional and high-quality news provision at 10
o'clock? Who wants to switch to ITV to watch the news again? It
just does not make any kind of sense to me. It does not make commercial
sense.
Q998 Chairman:
Do you feel that the BBC news is providing a gap for you there?
Do you think it is not as good as it might be?
Mr Grade: I think the BBC news is excellent.
The 10 o'clock news on the BBC is highly authoritative, very comprehensive,
they have a pretty serious agenda and I think, from ITV's point
of view, ITN, has always felt, without losing its seriousness
of agenda, slightly more accessible. The tone is slightly more
accessible, without losing seriousness and having what I might
call a frivolous news agenda. The news agenda of News at Ten-thirty
at the moment is a very serious and responsible one but our tone
is slightly lighter and more accessible.
Q999 Chairman:
So it is a different product?
Mr Grade: It is a different product, yes. ITN
make their own news judgements on the day.
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